Last Updated 27Feb2024
I love bread.
It is, in my opinion, THEE most versatile (and delicious) vehicle for carrying flavor. Sandwiches = bread + stuff + bread = yum. Pizza = bread + sauce + cheese. Bagels? Bread. Pita? Bread. Tortillas? Bread. Bread. Bread bread bread. Bread has been, and forever will be, a star player in some of the most legendary dishes on this planet. And yet… it still can be extraordinary on its own. Of all the bread in the world of bread, my recent obsession has been sourdough. Bread makers have been perfecting the art of making sourdough for literally thousands of years, giving sourdough an especially “artisanal” distinction. One might even say that it is the king (or queen) of bread, but I’ll leave that one up to you.
To make bread, you need flour, water, and yeast. It sounds so simple, but it is soo easy to f**k up. While, yes, there are technically 3 ingredients, yeast needs to have a great big asterisks. In case you are not in “the know”, yeast is a living thing, and in the context of making bread, it brings a mind boggling amount of complexity to the table. Here is the not-so-simple equation:
The hard part of mastering yeasted breads is understanding that big, scary, black box. Fortunately, this is also the fun part. Under normal circ*mstances, I am not a fan of exact measurements and strict guidelines, but baking, more so than cooking, requires a much more formulaic approach. With that said, I will attempt to take you through my process of making sourdough while including as much detail as I can. This is not the THE way to make sourdough, but it is a method that has proven to be successful through multiple attempts. Feel free to make it your own, but be aware of the associated risks. Yeast does what it wants, when it wants to.
This is your leavening. For sourdough, we simply cannot used instant dried yeast, as a complex, homegrown culture of both yeast and lactobacillus is the only way to provide that defining sour flavor. If you have flour and water, you have enough to maintain your own colony. The tricky part is jump starting the culture. In my situation, my old roommate made sourdough often, so he had a yeast culture going at all times. Obtaining some for my own culture was as easy as asking for a spoonful and feeding it some fresh flour and water. If you really want to make this 100% from scratch, you can leave out flour and water in a warm place and hope the right organisms select your container as a home. This really isn’t too hard to do, but you might have to give it a few tries. That mixture of flour and water is pretty scrumptious for a wide variety of microorganisms, and they will fight each other for the real estate. That said, it is very possible for the organisms we want to lose the fight, leading to a contamination of either mold or unwanted bacteria. Luckily, when Team yeast and lactobacillus does win, it is pretty good at fending off any unwanted organisms. To my understanding, this is because the lactobacillus produces lactic acid, making the starter too acidic of an environment for most other microorganisms, and, conveniently, this allows me to leave my starter on the windows sill 24/7 (and sometimes the fridge if storing long term). If you do choose to grow your own culture, you will know you’ve made it when you have a sour smelling, bubbly mixture that has no signs of unwanted organisms.
Ok, so you’ve obtained starter somehow. You’re next goal is getting it ready to be made into bread. Remember this: there is strength in numbers. You want a lot of super active yeast in your starter before attempting to make bread - this way, you maximize the potential for your bread to rise. As I type this, I’m realizing I never mentioned why we need yeast in the first place. Mainly, the carbon dioxide that yeast creates within the dough allows the bread to rise, giving it a pleasant, airy quality. Without it, you would have a dense mound of cooked wheat product that can hardly be considered bread. Secondarily, yeast and lactobacillus co*cktail help develop flavor metabolizing the sugars in the flour… i.e., fermentation!
Getting back on track… to get your starter ready, you need to feed it multiple times. That standard ratio is add equal parts flour and water each time you feed your starter. While white flour alone can work, I mix in some rye or wheat flour because it is more nutritious for the yeast, giving it an extra boost of vitality and rising power.
Rising/bubbles/foam = good. This means the yeast is alive and kicking and producing that precious carbon dioxide. While one feeding is likely to show results, your yeast will only reach maximum activity if you feed it for several consecutive days. Like humans, yeast doesn’t like to hang out in its own excrement, so make sure to dump some spent culture out before every feeding. Once your yeast is practically bursting out of your container, you know it’s ready to make an incredible loaf of bread. See the gif for an example.
I find myself always going back to this video from Foodgeek for a reliable guide to grow your own starter. Try it out!
Ok now that we’ve got our starter, we can move on to making our bread. While you can easily throw your starter in with some flour and water and hope for the best, we can increase our chances for success by being a little more… calculated.
The first thing I should mention is hydration. Generally, a standard sourdough boule is made with hydration levels ranging from 60% to 80%. This percentage, known as a baker’s percentage, is calculated using the total weight of flour as a basis. For an example, if we use 1000 grams of flour in our dough, and we add 650 grams of water, the baker’s percentage for water is 65%. While you can measure by volume, I highly recommend measuring by weight. The way you fill a cup of flour can drastically affect your measurements: a cup packed tight will have significantly more weight than a loosely packed cup, ultimately adding variability to your percentages. In short, if you want to be maximize consistency, invest in a scale.
Soooo yeah. Hydration. The more water in your dough, the more light, airy, and chewy it will be. This sounds sexy and all, but there is a catch: the higher hydration you have, the more difficult your dough will be to work with. I’ve tried making loaves pushing 80% hydration, and they seemed to turn into a sticky mess at the slightest touch. I am not a master yet, so I stick with loaves made with around 65-70% hydration. At this percentage, your dough will still fight with you a bit, but with a little practice, you will find that it is more than manageable.
If you’re allergic to gluten, you’ve come to the wrong place (although I admit my gut does not always love it). If you’re not sure, you’ll know after eating this bread because sourdough is all gluten everything.
For starters, gluten is a protein, and it’s main contribution is that it provides strength to your dough.
In any given bag of flour you have gluten… unless it’s labeled as gluten free :). There is probably lots of other stuff in there, but we don’t really care about that. For sourdough, I like bread flour because it contains more gluten than all purpose, and more gluten = stronger dough = more rise = airy and chewy = delicious. To my understanding, when gluten is hydrated with water, it’s molecular conformation drastically changes, making it elastic and quite strong. Upon your first mixing of flour into water, your gluten “framework” will have no sort of shape. Yes, you will have hydrated gluten molecules dispersed throughout your dough, but they will not be oriented in any sort of beneficial way. The goal is then to develop your gluten framework. By working the dough in a way that stretches and loops the gluten strands into a ball-like matrix, you can add structural integrity. This is not as easy as it sounds, as there are SO many factors to consider. More so than cooking, baking bread requires a unique ability to “sense” and “feel” your way throughout the process. The masters can make gluten their b**ch. Unfortunately for us newcomers, it’s usually the other way around.
So what does affect gluten development? If you’re familiar with protein chemistry at all, then you know it’s your usual suspects: salt content, pH, temperature, mechanical stress, etc. There are probably loads more, but for the home-baker, we are mostly concerned with temperature and time.
Temperature is usually harder to control, but it still is an important factor. Increasing the heat will relax the gluten matrix in the dough, causing it to be more slack and even more sticky. With this said, throwing your dough in the fridge can make your dough stronger and easier to handle. However, there is a drawback to this. Dropping the temperature also slows down the productivity of your yeast, making the rise much, much slower. If you have the time for this, by all means, go for it. I’ve even read that this cold, slow rise allows yeast to create some unique flavors that you can’t get from a short rise. Some recipes even instruct you to shape your dough, refrigerate it overnight, and bake it right out of the fridge in the morning. If you can work this into your time frame, by all means, try it out, but I’ve personally had more success with skipping this step.
Time is always your friend in this process. If at any point you feel like throwing your mixing bowl out the window, set it down and wait an hour. Dough tends to act up when overworked, often becoming sticky and unmanageable. If this ever happens to you, just let your dough rest. Once the gluten relaxes, the dough will be much easier to handle. For this reason, I always do periodic sets of short, gentile folds with long rests in between. If you’re doing it right, you will find that the dough will slowly begin to hold its shape better after each rest.
For those of you wondering how I do these “folds”, here is a brief video showing my technique (pro-tip: use wet/damp hands to prevent the dough from sticking):
If you can get the gluten working in your favor, then the next thing to keep track of is the rise. If you are doing your folds at room temperature, you should find that your dough is slowly increasing in volume and getting more “billowy”. Once it holds its shape relatively well and is nearly doubled in volume, it is time to shape. For me, this normally occurs after 5-6 hours with at least a set of folds every other hour.
The goal of the shaping is to tighten up your dough as much as possible without losing all of the delicate air bubble we’ve waited oh so patiently for. This is probably my favorite part of the whole process; it requires such swift, confident, yet gentile movements that are super satisfying if you can pull it off properly. My method is pretty simple. I first dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Then, I perform a set of stitches followed by a few folds to finish it off. Words can only do so much to describe the process, so I decided to make a quick instructional video. I put a little too much flour on the counter top, so my folds didn’t seal quite as nicely as I wanted. Regardless, the loaf came out delicious, and this shaping technique has proven to be continuously successful.
Notice how I plopped my shaped dough into that bowl after the shaping: That bowl was my proofing basket, or as the fancies call it, a banneton. You don’t need an actual banneton for this, but at the very least, you need a properly sized bowl lined with a fairly large fine-threaded cloth. Before placing your bread into the bowl, you want to make sure the cloth is dusted with rice flour or corn starch, as this will prevent the dough from sticking (this is a common catastrophe). I try to avoid using flower here, as I find that it is more prone to stickage.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of “proofing”, it basically just means giving your shaped dough one last chance to rise before baking. The amount of time you want to proof for depends on how long you let your dough rise before shaping. Honestly, this is something that takes some practice to get right. There is certainly such a thing as over-proofing, as a dough that has expanded too much will likely be weak and collapse in the oven. If you under proof it, you will find yourself with an unpleasantly dense loaf. Generally, you want your dough to be double its original volume before placing in the oven. This will guarantee a light and airy loaf with a delicate, chewy texture. Give it a few pokes. You want it to be nice and billowy, but you still want it to resist your finger slightly. If you’re really not sure, talk to it; it may be willing to tell you if it’s ready.
This is where it all comes together in a beautiful, really-good smelling finale. All you need to succeed here is the proper tools and some finesse. For starters, you need a an oven - preheat that guy to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. You can’t just plop your dough onto the wire oven racks; you need a surface/vessel to be the host of your bread’s glorious transformation. My personal favorite method is a cast iron dutch oven. The reason this is my favorite is because you can keep the lid on for the beginning of the cooking process, allowing you to trap steam inside this mini-oven-within-an-oven. This steam rapidly heats the outside of your dough while it cooks, causing it to get all bubbly and moist, ultimately leading to a rustic, chewy crust. If you don’t have a dutch oven, then you could use a pizza stone, however you might get a little less oven spring and the crust won’t be as robust… However, you may find that you like this better! Also, whatever you do end up using, make sure you preheat it in the oven for a while… You want that sucker to be ripping hot when your dough hits it. This way, the gases within the dough will aggressively expand giving you the most light and chewy crumb possible.
For more control, I like turn out my proofed dough onto a sheet of parchment before transferring into my dutch oven. A fully proofed dough is pretty delicate, so you want to act swiftly and confidently. If you properly dusted your proofing basket, then flipping the dough out onto the parchment should be relatively painless. Don’t be alarmed if it spreads out a bit and looks sort of flat - this is normal. As long as it has some surface tension and still feels billowy, it should rise nicely and turn out great.
Soo on the subject of the rise… We previously mentioned that the rise is caused by the rapid expansion of gas within the heated dough. This is awesome, and generally, the more rising power, the better. However, there is a catch: this expanding gas needs somewhere to go. If doesn’t have a place to escape, it will bust out of your dough where it wants to, kicking, screaming, and causing an ugly looking “blowout” somewhere on your loaf. To mitigate this, we want to score our dough before putting it in the oven. In case you haven’t heard, scoring involves cutting the surface of the dough to allow for gas to escape during the rise. As a rule of thumb, you should cut 2-3 slits that are each at least 1/3 inch deep. You can make this cuts in any direction you want! Go crazy, make some art, and have fun with it.
Once you’ve eviscerated the surface of your dough, he/she is ready to enter the oven. (Carefully) pick up your fragile dough by the edges of the parchment paper and plop the entire thing (parchment and all) into the preheated dutch oven (or onto the baking stone). Some people spray the surface of the dough at this time to create more steam and a more crusty crust. For those that are daring, you can also skip the parchment and plop the dough right into the dutch oven… Just make sure to not burn your hand while you score.
20 minutes at 500 degrees Fahrenheit with the lid on, followed by 30 minutes at 450 degrees Fahrenheit with the lid off. Remember this. It works for me every time. Still, you should keep checking on it towards the tail end of the cooking process because it is definitely possible for it to burn, especially if your oven retains heat really well. By the end of this, your kitchen should be smelling divine. When you finally take the loaf out, try to resist the urge to cut into it right away. The loaf actually continues cooking for another half hour or so after it comes out of the oven. If you do cut into it right away, you may find that the crumb is still sort of gummy, and after some time, you may even observe some deflation. While this isn’t the end of the world, it is a minor step away from the “perfect loaf” that we are all striving for.
Ok, that was a lot of text, but for good reason. The process of making bread is so involved. Unless you are really lucky, you need to (somewhat) know what you’re doing if you want to consistently pull beauties out of the oven. Here I will give a quick summary of my personal process, including the exact measurements I use for my loaves. Again, feel free to mess around with your proportions and methods; it’s sometimes fun to get a sense of how different variables change your final product.
Makes 1 large boule, the size of a human head
For making your bulk dough:
300g active starter
I recommend following this video from Foodgeek if you want to grow your own.
500g bread flour
15g spelt flour (or 25g rye flour… or just 25g bread flour… this is just for flavor!)
300g warm water (~68% hydration)
13g salt (~2%)
Mix water and salt together until salt dissolves
Mix starter into the water until starter is largely broken up and the liquid had a milky appearance. It’s ok if it is still chunky.
Mix in all the flour until there is little/no dry flour remaining. Cover and let sit for at least 20 minutes. This marks the start of a pretty long process, so it’s best to do this early in the day or even before bed (to resume this next morning).
Come back after the 20 minutes and give it some shape via a few folds. See video for the technique.
Over the course of a day hours, come back and do these same folds periodically - a set of 1-5 every hour or two is more than enough. The number of folds you perform will be dictated by the strength of the dough, with the goal being to build surface tension while avoiding tearing and preserving air bubbles… It’s a balance you might have to feel out with practice. Towards the end of the day, the dough should have a considerably larger volume, feel billowy, yet you may need to handle it gently.
Once the dough is practically bursting at the seems and the sun is starting to set, plop the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and carefully shape your dough into a ball. See video for shaping technique.
Immediately transfer the dough ball into a flour-dusted proofing basket or cloth-lined bowl. I use rice flour or corn/potato starch to maximize non-stickage. Don’t be afraid to load it up, as you can always brush the excess off later.
Let proof at room temp for 1-4 hours. You want a noticeable increase in volume, almost doubled.
Optionally, you can proof the the dough in the fridge overnight. Sometimes I do this just for convenience.. Just be aware that the rise will be much slower.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Place your dutch oven or pizza stone in the oven to preheat as well.
Tip: If you find that the bottom of your bread is burning, you can place a pizza stone or baking sheet below the dutch oven, acting as a barrier between the dutch oven and the heating element.
Once the dough is proofed, turn it out onto a sheet of parchment. Dust off excess flour.
If you don’t have parchment, you can turn out the dough directly onto the cooking surface, but it is a little trickier.
Carefully transfer the dough to your preheated surface, parchment and all (if using). Score the dough to your liking, put the lid on if you have a dutch oven, place in the oven, and set a timer for 20 minutes. If you are using a pizza stone, simply transfer the dough onto the pizza stone and try to create steam somehow - either spray the loaf with water, or maybe splash some water into your oven… or neither! Your crust will have a little less blistery-chew-factor.
After 20 minutes, drop the temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. If using a dutch oven, take the lid off at this point as well.
Allow to cook at 450 degrees for 30 minutes or until the crust is darkened significantly, after which take out the loaf, place on a cooling rack, and let cool for at least 30 minutes.
Slice.
Spread on salted butter.
Eat. Chew. Close your eyes, maybe moan a little… Enjoy.
